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Many people already know the book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.” According to the author Malcolm Gladwell, tipping points are “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.” He defines the term as sociological and uses it to explain sociological epidemics.

Three Rules of Epidemics

In his book, Gladwell laid out the “three rules of epidemics” as follows:

1) The Law of the Few.
“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.” The author categorized people into Connectors who link us up with the world; Mavens who are “people we rely upon to connect us with new information;” and Salesmen who are charismatic persuaders.

2) The Stickiness Factor
The specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable.

3) The Power of Context
Human behavior is sensitive to and strongly influenced by its environment.

Although the research comes from sociology, I think it applies to technology as well. After all, technology is social. Just think about social networks like Facebook, and the recent success of Apple’s iPad.

If you want your technology to be a huge success, you cannot ignore its social side story. In the end, it is human beings who make decisions regarding any technology adoption or product purchase. Read more...

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